I have a Butterfly Weed – Asclepias curassavica in a pot hoping to attract more butterflies. It is a host plant for Monarchs and other butterflies seem to like it too. It seems to have worked because I soon found several Monarch caterpillars on the plant. Here is one of my first shots of one of them.

I noticed that a small fly had landed on it and went on to take other shots. When I came back I noticed that the fly was still there in the same position near the rear of the caterpillar. That seemed odd so I got a stronger lens and got a bit closer. It didn’t matter how close I got, the fly wasn’t about to leave.

It turns out that these flies lay their eggs inside the host caterpillar where they hatch and live as maggots until they are ready to pupate. Sometimes nature is disgusting. At any rate, the caterpillar itself will not pupate now and will therefore never become a butterfly. But that doesn’t happen to all of them. Here are a couple of shots, one of an adult Monarch – Danaus plexippus and the flowers of the Butterfly Weed.